Matthew Pooles Commentary on the Holy Bible - Book of 2nd Timothy (Annotated)

The Works Of Matthew Poole, Annotations Upon The Holy Bible, Puritan Fathers

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Some think that having discovered the sins of the Gentiles in the former chapter, he here useth a transition, and turneth himself to the Jews, and lays open their more secret wickedness and hypocrisy. But the particle therefore in the front of the chapter, doth seem to intimate, that this is inferred from what went before, and is a continuance of the same argument. It is of the Gentiles then that he is still discoursing, and he begins by name to deal with the Jews, Romans 2: Some think he speaks more particularly of such as were judges and magistrates amongst the Gentiles, who, though they made laws for to judge and punish others for such and such crimes, did yet commit the same themselves.

These, in their speeches and writings, did censure the evil manners of others, and yet were as bad themselves.

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As Cato is said to have used extortion, prostituted his wife, and to have laid violent hands upon himself; and yet he was affirmed by Velleius to be homo virtuti simillimus, a most virtuous man. But the received opinion is, that the apostle in general doth tax all such as censure and find fault with others, and yet are guilty of the same things themselves. Thou art inexcusable, O man, whosoever thou art that judgest: Thou art without all excuse, that dost assent and subscribe to the righteous judgment of God, that they who do such things as are mentioned in the foregoing chapter, are worthy of death, and yet doest the same thyself; if not openly, yet secretly and inwardly thou art guilty of the same or as great sins.

Thou canst make no apology or pretence, why the sentence of death and condemnation, which is due to others, should not likewise pass upon thee. For wherein thou judgest another, thou condemnest thyself; i. He judgeth righteous judgment; he judgeth of persons and things, not as they are in appearance, but as they are in reality.

Matthew Poole

Against them which commit such things; this indefinite manner of speaking includeth both those that judge others, and those who, for the aforementioned sins, are subject to the censures of others. See 1 John 3: Here he taxeth such as thought God approved of their persons and courses, at least that he would not regard or punish their evil actions, because he had hitherto forborne them, and heaped up abundance of worldly blessings upon them, as he did upon the Romans especially, above other people.

It is common for men to grow secure, and promise themselves impunity, when God forbears them, and gives them outward prosperity: The riches of his goodness; i.

The abundance of his goodness: Treasurest up unto thyself wrath against the day of wrath; this passage seems to respect Deuteronomy You have a parallel place, James 5: The meaning is, Thou provokest more and more the wrath of God against thee; by heaping up sins, thou heapest up judgments of God upon thyself: Revelation of the righteous judgment of God; this is a periphrasis of the day of judgment, or of the last day: This proves what he had said, that the judgment of God, in that day, will be according to righteousness, or most righteous judgment.

Parallel places you will find, Psalms The papists from hence infer the merit of works; but the reward to the godly is a reward of grace, and not of debt.

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The word apodounai imports not only a just retribution, but a free gift, as in Matthew Good works are the rule of his proceeding, not the cause of his retribution: Patient continuance; or perseverance in well doing, which implies patience: God will render eternal life to such: That are contentious; or, that are of contention: By contentious, understand such as are refractory and self-willed; that, from a spirit of contradiction, will not be persuaded; that strive and kick against the righteousness of God, from an opinion of their own righteousness, Hosea 4: Do not obey the truth: But obey unrighteousness; that are the servants of sin, and of corruption, Romans 6: Indignation and wrath; these two differ only in degree: Tribulation and anguish; the word render is here again understood, he shall render tribulation and anguish.

Some refer the former to the punishment of sin, the latter to the punishment of loss; or the one to the unquenchable fire, the other to the never dying worm: Every soul of man; a double Hebraism: Secondly, every soul of man, is put for the soul of every man; as before, Romans 1: The soul of man shall not be punished only, but chiefly. Peace; what he called immortality, Romans 2: To the Jew first, and also to the Gentile; as the ungodly and unbelieving Jews shall have the first place in punishment, so those that believe and are godly amongst them shall have the first place in reward, though yet, for the reason mentioned in the next verse, the godly and believing Gentiles shall share with them therein.

This seems to be borrowed from 2 Chronicles You have the same again, Acts God loved Jacob, and hated Esau, when they were yet unborn, and had done neither good nor evil. This was not properly a respecting of persons, because God did not this as a judge, but as an elector: God is gracious to whom he will be gracious, and may do what he will with his own. By the former he means the Gentiles, by the latter, the Jews; the like distribution he makes, 1 Corinthians 9: This and the two following verses are included in a parenthesis, and they serve to obviate an objection against what was said, Romans 2: The Jews might plead, that they were superior to the Gentiles, and should be exempted or privileged, in judgment, forasmuch as they knew and professed the law of God, which the Gentiles did not.

To this he says, that to know and learn the law was not sufficient, unless in all things they yielded obedience to it, which they neither did nor could. The scope of the apostle is not simply to show how sinners are now justified in the sight of God; but to show what is requisite to justification according to the tenor of the law, and that is, to do all that is written therein, and to continue so to do. And if there be any man that can bring such perfect and constant obedience of his own performing, he shall be justified by God; but inasmuch as no man, neither natural nor regenerate, can so fulfil the law, he must seek for justification in some other way.

The text, thus expounded, doth no way militate with Romans 3: And it further shows, that the Jews are comprehended under the general curse, as well as the Gentiles, and are bound to have recourse to the righteousness of God by faith. They might object, that having not the law, they could not transgress, nor be culpable in judgment: To this he says, that though they had not the law written in tables of stone, as the Jews had, yet they had a law written in their hearts, which was a copy or counterpart of the other, and had in a manner the effects of it; for thereby they were instructed to do well, and debarred from doing evil, which are the two properties of all laws.

Do by nature; nature is opposed to Scripture and special revelation: Are a law unto themselves; i. By the work of the law, either understand the sum of the law, which is, To love God above all, and our neighbour as ourselves; or the office of the law, which consists in directing what to do, and what to leave undone; or the external actions which the law prescribes. Written in their hearts; this seems to be a covenant promise and privilege, Jeremiah Jereramiah speaks there of a special and supernatural inscription or writing in the heart by grace; and the apostle here, of that which is common and natural.

Their thoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing one another; interchangeably, now one way, anon another. Not as though the thoughts did, at the same time, strive together about the same fact; nor is it meant of divers men, as if good men were excused, and bad men accused, by their own thoughts; but in the same persons there were accusing or excusing thoughts and consciences, as their actions were evil or good.

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These words may be referred to Romans 2: Though some annex them to the words immediately preceding: Now the consciences of men do testify for or against them, and their thoughts accuse or excuse them; but in the day of judgment they will do it more especially. Shall judge the secrets of men; so that the most secret sins shall not escape the notice and censure of the Judge: He calls it his gospel, not as the author, but as the publisher of it; it was not his in respect of revelation, but in regard of dispensation, Romans He now comes to deal more particularly and expressly with the Jews, reciting their privileges, in which they trusted, and of which they boasted; and shows, that notwithstanding them, they stood in as much need of the righteousness of God as the Gentiles did.

Thou; he speaks in the singular number, that every one might make the readier application of what he said. Thou art so called, but art not so indeed: Makest thy boast of God; that he is thy God, and in covenant with thee; and that thou hast a peculiar interest in him: The phrase seems to be borrowed from Isaiah Art confident; thou dost proudly arrogate all that follows to thyself, and conceitest that thou hast all the points of the law in thy breast, and full knowledge of all the secrets thereof.

See Poole on " Romans 2: The form of knowledge; a scheme or system of notions, a compendious model or method, which is artificially composed; such as tutors and professors of arts and sciences, do read over again and again to their pupils and auditors. Poole gave some credit to this, reportedly after a scare on returning home one evening near Clerkenwell with Josiah Chorley.

Poole left England, and settled at Amsterdam.

Here he died on 12 October N. His wife was buried on 11 August at St Andrew Holborn , Stillingfleet preaching the funeral sermon. He left a son, who died in In Poole published a tract against John Biddle.

In he put forward a scheme for a scholarship for university courses, for those intending to enter the ministry. Money was raised, and supported William Sherlock at Peterhouse. His Vox Clamantis gives his view of the ecclesiastical situation after The work with which his name is principally associated is the Synopsis criticorum biblicorum 5 vols fol.

On the suggestion of William Lloyd , Poole undertook the Synopsis as a digest of biblical commentators, from It took ten years, with relaxation often at Henry Ashurst 's house. The prospectus of Poole's work mustered of eight bishops and five continental scholars. A patent for the work was obtained on 14 October , and the first volume was ready for the press, when difficulties were raised by Cornelius Bee, publisher of the Critici Sacri ; the matter was decided in Poole's favour.

Rabbinical sources and Roman Catholic commentators are included; little is taken from John Calvin , nothing from Martin Luther. Poole also wrote English Annotations on the Holy Bible , completing the chapters as far as Isaiah 58 before his death in The rest of the Annotations were completed by friends and colleagues among his Nonconformist brethren.

The other authors, by Biblical book, were:.

• The Love List (New York Nights)
• Older Women in the Criminal Justice System: Running Out of Time
• Harbingers of Autumn: Unsuitable Resting Place
• Office Play: Expecting & In Need of Love (Pregnant Sex & Lactation)
• Corto Maltese - Le etiopiche #6: 125 anni di avventure (Italian Edition)
• Management Gurus, Revised Edition